Chapter III: The Conversion of Rome (7)

242 The dispute about whether anything but virtue is a good, was, in
reality, a somewhat childish quarrel about words; for the Stoics,
who indignantly denounced the Peripatetics for maintaining the
affirmative, admitted that health, friends, &c., should be sought
not as “goods” but as “preferables.” See a long discussion on this
matter in Cicero (_De Finib._ lib. iii. iv.). The Stoical doctrine
of the equality of all vices was formally repudiated by Marcus
Aurelius, who maintained (ii. 10), with Theophrastus, that faults of
desire were worse than faults of anger. The other Stoics, while
dogmatically asserting the equality of all virtues as well as the
equality of all vices, in their particular judgments graduated their
praise or blame much in the same way as the rest of the world.

243 See Seneca (_Ep._ lxxxix.). Seneca himself, however, has devoted a
work to natural history, but the general tendency of the school was
certainly to concentrate all attention upon morals, and all, or
nearly all the great naturalists were Epicureans. Cicero puts into
the mouth of the Epicurean the sentence, “Omnium autem rerum natura
cognita levamur superstitione, liberamur mortis metu, non
conturbamur ignoratione rerum” (_De Fin._ i.); and Virgil expressed
an eminently Epicurean sentiment in his famous lines:—

“Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque
Acherontis avari.”

_Georg._ 490-492.

244 Plutarch, _Cato Major_.

245 Cicero, _Ad Attic._ vi. 2.

246 This contrast is noticed and largely illustrated by M. Montée in his
interesting little work _Le Stoïcisme à Rome_, and also by Legendre
in his _Traité de l’Opinion, ou Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de
l’esprit humain_ (Venise, 1735).

247 “Atque hoc quidem omnes mortales sic habent ... commoditatem
prosperitatemque vitæ a diis se habere, virtutem autem nemo unquam
acceptam deo retulit. Nimirum recte. Propter virtutem enim jure
laudamur et in virtute recte gloriamur. Quod non contingeret si id
donum a deo, non a nobis haberemus.”—Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ iii.
36.

_ 248 Ep._ i. 18.

249 Seneca _Ep._ lxvi.

250 Lucretius, v. It was a Greek proverb, that Apollo begat Æsculapius
to heal the body, and Plato to heal the soul. (Legendre, _Traité de
l’Opinion_, tome i. p. 197.)

251 “Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano:
Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem....
Monstro, quod ipse tibi possis dare.”

Juvenal, _Sat._ x. 356.

Marcus Aurelius recommends prayer, but only that we may be freed
from evil desires. (ix. 11.)

252 Seneca, _Ep._ lxvi.

253 Ibid. _Ep._ liii.

_ 254 De Const. Sap._ viii.

_ 255 Ench._ xlviii.

256 Arrian, i. 12.

257 Arrian, ii. 8. The same doctrine is strongly stated in Seneca, _Ep._
xcii.

258 Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 66.

_ 259 Ep._ lxxxiii. Somewhat similar sentiments are attributed to Thales
and Bion (Diog. Laërt.).

_ 260 Ep._ xli. There are some beautiful sentiments of this kind in
Plutarch’s treatise, _De Sera Numinis Vindicta_. It was a saying of
Pythagoras, that “we become better as we approach the gods.”

261 Marc. Aur. iii. 5.

262 Marcus Aurelius.

263 Seneca, _Præf. Nat. Quæst._ iii.

264 Marc. Aur. x. 25.

265 Epict. _Ench._ xvii.

266 Epict. _Ench._ xi.

267 Seneca, _De Prov._ i.

268 Ibid. iv.

269 Marc. Aurel. ii. 2, 3.

270 The language in which the Stoics sometimes spoke of the inexorable
determination of all things by Providence would appear logically
inconsistent with free will. In fact, however, the Stoics asserted
the latter doctrine in unequivocal language, and in their practical
ethics even exaggerated its power. Aulus Gellius (_Noct. Att._ vi.
2) has preserved a passage in which Chrysippus exerted his subtlety
in reconciling the two things. See, too, Arrian, i. 17.

271 We have an extremely curious illustration of this mode of thought in
a speech of Archytas of Tarentum on the evils of sensuality, which
Cicero has preserved. He considers the greatest of these evils to be
that the vice predisposes men to unpatriotic acts. “Nullam
capitaliorem pestem quam corporis voluptatem, hominibus a natura
datam.... Hinc patriæ proditiones, hinc rerumpublicarum eversiones,
hinc cum hostibus clandestina colloquia nasci,” etc.—Cicero, _De
Senect._ xii.

272 Diog. Laërt. _Anax._

273 “Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares; sed omnes
omnium caritates patria una complexa est; pro qua quis bonus dubitet
mortem oppetere si ei sit profuturus?”—_De Offic._ i. 17.

274 See Seneca, _Consol. ad Helviam_ and _De Otio Sapien._; and
Plutarch, _De Exilio_. The first of these works is the basis of one
of the most beautiful compositions in the English language,
Bolingbroke’s _Reflections on Exile_.

_ 275 De Officiis_.

_ 276 Epist._ i. 10.

277 “Tota enim philosophorum vita, ut ait idem, commentatio mortis
est.”—Cicero, _Tusc._ i. 30, _ad fin_.

_ 278 Essay on Death._

279 Spinoza, _Ethics_, iv. 67.

280 Camden. Montalembert notices a similar legend as existing in
Brittany (_Les Moines d’Occident_, tome ii. p. 287). Procopius (_De
Bello Goth._ iv. 20) says that it is impossible for men to live in
the west of Britain, and that the district is believed to be
inhabited by the souls of the dead.

281 In his _De Sera Numinis Vindicta_ and his _Consolatio ad Uxorem_.

282 In the _Phædo_, _passim_. See, too, Marc. Aurelius, ii. 12.

283 See a very striking letter of Epicurus quoted by Diogenes Laërt. in
his life of that philosopher. Except a few sentences, quoted by
other writers, these letters were all that remained of the works of
Epicurus, till the recent discovery of one of his treatises at
Herculaneum.

_ 284 Tusc. Quæst._ i.

_ 285 Consol. ad Polyb._ xxvii.

286 Maury, _Hist. des Religions de la Grèce antique_, tom. i. pp.
582-588. M. Ravaisson, in his Memoir on Stoicism (_Acad. des
Inscriptions et Belles-lettres_, tom. xxi.) has enlarged on the
terrorism of paganism, but has, I think, exaggerated it. Religions
which selected games as the natural form of devotion can never have
had any very alarming character.

287 Plutarch, _Ad Apollonium_.

288 Ibid.

289 Cic. _Tusc. Quæst._ i.

290 Philost. Apoll. of Tyan. v. 4. Hence their passion for suicide,
which Silius Italicus commemorates in lines which I think very
beautiful:—

“Prodiga gens animæ et properare facillima mortem;
Namque ubi transcendit florentes viribus annos
Impatiens ævi, spernit novisse senectam
Et fati modus in dextra est.”—i. 225-228.

Valerius Maximus (ii. vi. § 12) speaks of Celts who celebrated the
birth of men with lamentation, and their deaths with joy.

291 Aulus Gellius, _Noctes_, i. 3.

292 Tacitus, _Annales_, xv. 62.

293 Sueton. _Titus_, 10.

294 Capitolinus, _Antoninus_.

295 See the beautiful account of his last hours given by Ammianus
Marcellinus and reproduced by Gibbon. There are some remarks well
worth reading about the death of Julian, and the state of thought
that rendered such a death possible, in Dr. Newman’s _Discourses on
University Education_, lect. ix.

296 “Lex non pœna mors” was a favourite saying among the ancients. On
the other hand, Tertullian very distinctly enunciated the patristic
view, “Qui autem primordia hominis novimus, audenter determinamus
mortem non ex natura secutam hominem sed ex culpa.”—_De Anima_, 52.

297 Plutarch, _Ad Uxorem_.

298 St. Augustine, _Epist._ 166.

299 “At hoc quidem commune est omnium philosophorum, non eorum modo qui
deum nihil habere ipsum negotii dicunt, et nihil exhibere alteri;
sed eorum etiam, qui deum semper agere aliquid et moliri volunt,
numquam nec irasci deum nec nocere.”—Cic. _De Offic._ iii. 28.

300 See the refutation of the philosophic notion in Lactantius, _De Ira
Dei_.

301 “Revelation,” as Lessing observes in his essay on this subject, “has
made Death the ‘king of terrors,’ the awful offspring of sin and the
dread way to its punishment; though to the imagination of the
ancient heathen world, Greek or Etrurian, he was a youthful
genius—the twin brother of Sleep, or a lusty boy with a torch held
downwards.”—Coleridge’s _Biographia Litteraria_, cap. xxii., note by
Sara Coleridge.

302 “Vetat Pythagoras injussu imperatoris, id est Dei, de præsidio et
statione vitæ decedere.”—Cic. _De Senec._ xx. If we believe the very
untrustworthy evidence of Diog. Laërtius (_Pythagoras_) the
philosopher himself committed suicide by starvation.

303 See his _Laws_, lib. ix. In his _Phædon_, however, Plato went
further, and condemned all suicide. Libanius says (_De Vita Sua_)
that the arguments of the _Phædon_ prevented him from committing
suicide after the death of Julian. On the other hand, Cicero
mentions a certain Cleombrotus, who was so fascinated by the proof
of the immortality of the soul in the _Phædon_ that he forthwith
cast himself into the sea. Cato, as is well known, chose this work
to study, the night he committed suicide.

304 Arist. _Ethic._ v.

305 See a list of these in Lactantius’ _Inst. Div._ iii. 18. Many of
these instances rest on very doubtful evidence.

306 Adam Smith’s _Moral Sentiments_, part vii. § 2.

307 “Proxima deinde tenent mœsti loca qui sibi lethum
Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi
Projecere animas. Quam vellent æthere in alto
Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores.”
—_Æneid_, vi. 434-437.

308 Cicero has censured suicide in his _De Senectute_, in the _Somn.
Scipionis_, and in the _Tusculans_. Concerning the death of Cato, he
says, that the occasion was such as to constitute a divine call to
leave life.—_Tusc._ i.

309 Apuleius, _De Philos. Plat._ lib. i.

310 Thus Ovid:—

“Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere vitam,
Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest.”

See, too, Martial, xi. 56.

311 Especially _Ep._ xxiv. Seneca desires that men should not commit
suicide with panic or trepidation. He says that those condemned to
death should await their execution, for “it is a folly to die
through fear of death;” and he recommends men to support old age as
long as their faculties remain unimpaired. On this last point,
however, his language is somewhat contradictory. There is a good
review of the opinions of the ancients in general, and of Seneca in
particular, on this subject in Justus Lipsius’ _Manuductio ad
Stoicam Philosophiam_, lib. iii. dissert. 22, 23, from which I have
borrowed much.

312 In his _Meditations_, ix. 3, he speaks of the duty of patiently
awaiting death. But in iii. 1, x. 8, 22-32, he clearly recognises
the right of suicide in some cases, especially to prevent moral
degeneracy. It must be remembered that the _Meditations_ of Marcus
Aurelius were private notes for his personal guidance, that all the
Stoics admitted it to be wrong to commit suicide in cases where the
act would be an injury to society, and that this consideration in
itself would be sufficient to divert an emperor from the deed.
Antoninus, the uncle, predecessor, and model of M. Aurelius, had
considered it his duty several times to prevent Hadrian from
committing suicide (Spartianus, _Hadrianus_). According to
Capitolinus, Marcus Aurelius in his last illness purposely
accelerated his death by abstinence. The duty of not hastily, or
through cowardice, abandoning a path of duty, and the right of man
to quit life when it appears intolerable, are combined very clearly
by Epictetus, _Arrian_, i. 9; and the latter is asserted in the
strongest manner, i. 24-25.

313 Porphyry, _De Abst. Carnis_, ii. 47; Plotinus, 1st Enn. ix. Porphyry
says (_Life of Plotinus_) that Plotinus dissuaded him from suicide.
There is a good epitome of the arguments of this school against
suicide in Macrobius, _In Som. Scip._ 1.

314 Quoted by Seneca, _Ep._ xxvi. Cicero states the Epicurean doctrine
to be, “Ut si tolerabiles sint dolores, feramus, sin minus æquo
animo e vita, cum ea non placet, tanquam e theatro, exeamus” (_De
Finib._ i. 15); and again, “De Diis immortalibus sine ullo metu vera
sentit. Non dubitat, si ita melius sit, de vita migrare.”—Id. i. 19.

315 This is noticed by St. Jerome.

316 Corn. Nepos, _Atticus_. He killed himself when an old man, to
shorten a hopeless disease.

317 Petronius, who was called the arbitrator of tastes (“elegantiæ
arbiter”), was one of the most famous voluptuaries of the reign of
Nero. Unlike most of his contemporaries, however, he was endowed
with the most exquisite and refined taste; his graceful manners
fascinated all about him, and made him in matters of pleasure the
ruler of the Court. Appointed Proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards
Consul, he displayed the energies and the abilities of a statesman.
A Court intrigue threw him out of favour; and believing that his
death was resolved on, he determined to anticipate it by suicide.
Calling his friends about him, he opened his veins, shut them, and
opened them again; prolonged his lingering death till he had
arranged his affairs; discoursed in his last moments, not about the
immortality of the soul or the dogmas of philosophers, but about the
gay songs and epigrams of the hour; and partaking of a cheerful
banquet, died as recklessly as he had lived. (Tacit. _Annal._ xvi.
18-19.) It has been a matter of much dispute whether or not this
Petronius was the author of the _Satyricon_, one of the most
licentious and repulsive works in Latin literature.

318 Seneca, _De Vita Beata_, xix.

319 “Imperfectæ vero in homine naturæ præcipua solatia, ne Deum quidem
posse omnia; namque nec sibi potest mortem consciscere si velit,
quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitæ pœnis.”—_Hist. Nat._ ii. 5.

_ 320 Hist. Nat._ ii. 63. We need not be surprised at this writer thus
speaking of sudden death, “Mortes repentinæ (hoc est summa vitæ
felicitas),” vii. 54.

_ 321 Tusc. Quæst._ lib. 1. Another remarkable example of an epidemic of
suicide occurred among the young girls of Miletus. (_Aul. Gell._ xv.
10.)

322 Sir Cornewall Lewis, _On the Credibility of Early Roman History_,
vol. ii. p. 430. See, too, on this class of suicides, Cromaziano,
_Istorica Critica del Suicidio_ (Venezia, 1788), pp. 81-82. The real
name of the author of this book (which is, I think, the best history
of suicide) was Buonafede. He was a Celestine monk. The book was
first published at Lucca in 1761. It was translated into French in
1841.

323 Senec. _De Provid._ ii.; _Ep._ xxiv.

324 See some examples of this in Seneca, _Ep._ lxx.

325 See a long catalogue of suicides arising from this cause, in
Cromaziano, _Ist. del Suicidio_, pp. 112-114.

_ 326 Consol. ad Marc._ c. xx.

_ 327 De Ira_, iii. 15.

_ 328 Ep._ lxx.

329 See Donne’s _Biathanatos_ (London, 1700), pp. 56-57. Gibbon’s
_Decline and Fall_, ch. xliv. Blackstone, in his chapter on suicide,
quotes the sentence of the Roman lawyers on the subject: “Si quis
impatientia doloris aut tædio vitæ aut morbo aut furore aut pudore
mori maluit non animadvertatur in eum.” Ulpian expressly asserts
that the wills of suicides were recognised by law, and numerous
examples of the act, notoriously prepared and publicly and gradually
accomplished, prove its legality in Rome. Suetonius, it is true,
speaks of Claudius accusing a man for having tried to kill himself
(Claud, xvi.), and Xiphilin says (lxix. 8) that Hadrian gave special
permission to the philosopher Euphrates to commit suicide, “on
account of old age and disease;” but in the first case it appears
from the context that a reproach and not a legal action was meant,
while Euphrates, I suppose, asked permission to show his loyalty to
the emperor, and not as a matter of strict necessity. There were,
however, some Greek laws condemning suicide, probably on civic
grounds. Josephus mentions (_De Bell. Jud._ iii. 8) that in some
nations “the right hand of the suicide was amputated, and that in
Judea the suicide was only buried after sunset.” A very strange law,
said to have been derived from Greece, is reported to have existed
at Marseilles. Poison was kept by the senate of the city, and given
to those who could prove that they had sufficient reason to justify
their desire for death, and all other suicide was forbidden. The law
was intended, it was said, to prevent hasty suicide, and to make
deliberate suicide as rapid and painless as possible. (Valer.
Maximus, ii. 6, § 7.) In the Reign of Terror in France, a law was
made similar to that of Domitian. (Carlyle’s _Hist. of the French
Revolution_, book v. c. ii.)

330 Compare with this a curious “order of the day,” issued by Napoleon
in 1802, with the view of checking the prevalence of suicide among
his soldiers. (Lisle, _Du Suicide_, pp. 462-463.)

331 See Suetonius, _Otho._ c. x.-xi., and the very fine description in
Tacitus, _Hist._ lib. ii. c. 47-49. Martial compares the death of
Otho to that of Cato:

“Sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Cæsare major;
Dum moritur, numquid major Othone fuit?”
—_Ep._ vi. 32.

332 Xiphilin, lxviii. 12.

333 Tacit. _Hist._ ii. 49. Suet. _Otho_, 12. Suetonius says that, in
addition to these, many soldiers who were not present killed
themselves on hearing the news.

334 Ibid. _Annal._ xiv. 9.

335 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 54. The opposite faction attributed this
suicide to the maddening effects of the perfumes burnt on the pile.

336 Tacit. _Annal._ vi. 26.

337 Plin. _Ep._ i. 12.

338 This history is satirically and unfeelingly told by Lucian. See,
too, Ammianus Marcellinus, xxix. 1.

339 Sophocles.

340 Arrian, i. 24.

341 Seneca, _Ep._ lviii.

342 Stobæus. One of the most deliberate suicides recorded was that of a
Greek woman of ninety years old.—Val. Maxim. ii. 6, § 8.

343 Plin. _Ep._ iii. 7. He starved himself to death.

_ 344 Ep._ i. 22. Some of Pliny’s expressions are remarkable:—“Id ego
arduum in primis et præcipua laude dignum puto. Nam impetu quodam et
instinctu procurrere ad mortem, commune cum multis: deliberare vero
et causas ejus expendere, utque suaserit ratio, vitæ mortisque
consilium suscipere vel ponere, ingentis est animi.” In this case
the doctors pronounced that recovery was possible, and the suicide
was in consequence averted.

345 Lib. vi. _Ep._ xxiv.

_ 346 Ep._ lxxvii. On the former career of Marcellinus, see _Ep._ xxix.

347 See the very beautiful lines of Statius:—

“Urbe fuit media nulli concessa potentum
Ara Deum, mitis posuit Clementia sedem:
Et miseri fecere sacram, sine supplice numquam
Illa novo; nulla damnavit vota repulsa.
Auditi quicunque rogant, noctesque diesque
Ire datum, et solis numen placare querelis.
Parca superstitio; non thurea flamma, nec altus
Accipitur sanguis, lachrymis altaria sudant ...
Nulla autem effigies, nulli commissa metallo
Forma Deæ, mentes habitare et pectora gaudet.
Semper habet trepidos, semper locus horret egenis
Cœtibus, ignotæ tantum felicibus aræ.”—_Thebaid_, xii. 481-496.

This altar was very old, and was said to have been founded by the
descendants of Hercules. Diodorus of Sicily, however, makes a
Syracusan say that it was brought from Syracuse (lib. xiii. 22).
Marcus Aurelius erected a temple to “Beneficentia” on the Capitol.
(Xiphilin, lib. lxxi. 34.)

348 Herodotus, vi. 21.

349 See Arrian’s _Epictetus_, i. 9. The very existence of the word
φιλανθρωπία shows that the idea was not altogether unknown.

350 Diog. Laërt. _Pyrrho_. There was a tradition that Pythagoras had
himself penetrated to India, and learnt philosophy from the
gymnosophists. (Apuleius, _Florid._ lib. ii. c. 15.)

351 This aspect of the career of Alexander was noticed in a remarkable
passage of a treatise ascribed to Plutarch (_De Fort. Alex._).
“Conceiving he was sent by God to be an umpire between all, and to
unite all together, he reduced by arms those whom he could not
conquer by persuasion, and formed of a hundred diverse nations one
single universal body, mingling, as it were, in one cup of
friendship the customs, marriages, and laws of all. He desired that
all should regard the whole world as their common country, ... that
every good man should be esteemed a Hellene, every evil man a
barbarian.” See on this subject the third lecture of Mr. Merivale
(whose translation of Plutarch I have borrowed) _On the Conversion
of the Roman Empire_.

352 They were both born about B.C. 250. See Sir C. Lewis, _Credibility
of Early Roman History_, vol. i. p. 82.

353 Aulus Gellius mentions the indignation of Marcus Cato against a
consul named Albinus, who had written in Greek a Roman history, and
prefaced it by an apology for his faults of style, on the ground
that he was writing in a foreign language. (_Noct. Att._ xi. 8.)

354 See a vivid picture of the Greek influence upon Rome, in Mommsen’s
_Hist. of Rome_ (Eng. trans.), vol. iii. pp. 423-426.

355 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 31.

356 See Friedlænder, _Mœurs romaines du règne d’Auguste à la fin des
Antonins_ (French trans., 1865), tome i. pp. 6-7.

357 See the curious catalogue of Greek love terms in vogue (Lucretius,
lib. iv. line 1160, &c.). Juvenal, more than a hundred years later,
was extremely angry with the Roman ladies for making love in Greek
(_Sat._ vi. lines 190-195). Friedlænder remarks that there is no
special term in Latin for to ask in marriage (tome i. p. 354).

358 Aul. Gell. _Noct._ xv. 4; Vell. Paterculus, ii. 65. The people were
much scandalised at this elevation, and made epigrams about it.
There is a curious catalogue of men who at different times rose in
Rome from low positions to power and dignity, in Legendre, _Traité
de l’Opinion_, tome ii. pp. 254-255.

359 Dion Cassius, xlviii. 32. Plin. _Hist. Nat._ v. 5; vii. 44.

360 The history of the influence of freedmen is minutely traced by
Friedlænder, _Mœurs romaines du règne d’Auguste à la fin des
Antonins_, tome i. pp. 58-93. Statius and Martial sang their
praises.

361 See Tacit. _Ann._ vi. 23-25.

362 On the Roman journeys, see the almost exhaustive dissertation of
Friedlænder, tome ii.

363 Joseph. (_Antiq._ xvii. 11, § 1) says above 8,000 Jews resident in
Rome took part in a petition to Cæsar. If these were all adult
males, the total number of Jewish residents must have been extremely
large.

364 See the famous fragment of Seneca cited by St. Augustin (_De Civ.
Dei_, vi. 11): “Usque eo sceleratissimæ gentis consuetudo convaluit,
ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit: victi victoribus leges
dederunt.” There are numerous scattered allusions to the Jews in
Horace, Juvenal, and Martial.

365 The Carthaginian influence was specially conspicuous in early
Christian history. Tertullian and Cyprian (both Africans) are justly
regarded as the founders of Latin theology. (See Milman’s _Latin
Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. i. pp. 35-36.)

366 Milo had emancipated some slaves to prevent them from being tortured
as witnesses. (_Cic. Pro Milo._) This was made illegal. The other
reasons for enfranchisement are given by Dion. Halicarn. _Antiq._
lib. iv.

367 This subject is fully treated by Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclavage dans
l’Antiquité_.

368 Senec. _De Clemen._ i. 24.

369 See, on the prominence and the insolence of the freedmen, Tacit.
_Annal._ iii. 26-27.

370 Montesquieu, _Décadence des Romains_, ch. xiii.

371 See the very curious speech attributed to Camillus (Livy, v. 52).

372 “Caritas generis humani.”—_De Finib._ So, too, he speaks (_De Leg._
i. 23) of every good man as “civis totius mundi.”

373 He speaks of Rome as “civitas ex nationum conventu constituta.”

_ 374 De Legib._ i. 7.

_ 375 De Offic._

376 Ibid. iii. 6.

_ 377 De Offic._ iii. 6.

_ 378 De Legib._ i. 15.

379 “Tunc genus humanum positis sibi consulat armis,
Inque vicem gens omnis amet.”
—_Pharsalia_, vi.

_ 380 Ep._ xcv.

_ 381 Ep._ xxxi.

_ 382 De Vita Beata_, xx.

383 Arrian, ii. 10.

384 vi. 44.

385 “Hæc duri immota Catonis
Secta fuit, servare modum, finemque tenere,
Naturamque sequi, patriæque impendere vitam,
Nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo.”

Lucan, _Phars._ ii. 380-383.

386 There is a passage on this subject in one of the letters of Pliny,
which I think extremely remarkable, and to which I can recall no
pagan parallel:—“Nuper me cujusdam amici languor admonuit, optimos
esse nos dum infirmi sumus. Quem enim infirmum aut avaritia aut
libido solicitat? Non amoribus servit, non appetit honores ... tunc
deos, tunc hominem esse se meminit.”—Plin. _Ep._ vii. 26.

_ 387 Ep._ viii. 16. He says: “Hominis est enim affici dolore, sentire,
resistere tamen, et solatia admittere, non solatiis non egere.”

388 This characteristic of Stoicism is well noticed in Grant’s
_Aristotle_, vol. i. p. 254. The first volume of this work contains
an extremely good review of the principles of the Stoics.

389 Cie. _De Finib._ lib. iv.

390 Arrian, _Epict._ ii. 14.

391 Ibid. i. 9.

392 Ibid. i. 14.

393 Ibid. i. 16.

394 Arrian, ii. 8.

395 Plutarch, _De Profect. in Virt._ This precept was enforced by Bishop
Sanderson in one of his sermons. (Southey’s _Commonplace Book_, vol.
i. p. 92.)

396 Diog. Laërt. _Pythagoras_.

397 Thus Cicero makes Cato say: “Pythagoreorumque more, exercendæ
memoriæ gratia, quid quoque die dixerim, audiverim, egerim,
commemoro vesperi.”—_De Senect._ xi.

398 Ibid.

_ 399 Sermon_, i. 4.

400 He even gave up, for a time, eating meat, in obedience to the
Pythagorean principles. (_Ep._ cviii.) Seneca had two masters of
this school, Sextius and Sotion. He was at this time not more than
seventeen years old. (See Aubertin, _Étude critique sur les Rapports
supposés entre Sénèque et St. Paul_, p. 156.)

401 See his very beautiful description of the self-examination of
Sextius and of himself. (_De Ira_, iii. 36.)

402 Arrian, ii. 18. Compare the _Manual_ of Epictetus, xxxiv.

403 “Quod de Romulo ægre creditum est, omnes pari consensu præsumserunt,
Marcum cœlo receptum esse.”—Aur. Vict. _Epit._ xvi. “Deusque etiam
nunc habetur.”—Capitolinus.

404 The first book of his _Meditations_ was written on the borders of
the Granua, in Hungary.

405 i. 14.

406 See his touching letter to Fronto, who was about to engage in a
debate with Herod Atticus.

407 i. 6-15. The eulogy he passed on his Stoic master Apollonius is
worthy of notice. Apollonius furnished him with an example of the
combination of extreme firmness and gentleness.

408 E.g. “Beware of Cæsarising.” (vi. 30.) “Be neither a tragedian nor a
courtesan.” (v. 28.) “Be just and temperate and a follower of the
gods; but be so with simplicity, for the pride of modesty is the
worst of all.” (xii. 27.)

409 iii. 4.

410 i. 17.

411 v. 1.

412 ix. 29.

413 viii. 59.

414 xi. 18.

415 ix. 11.

416 viii. 15.

417 vii. 70.

418 vii. 63.

419 vii. 22.

420 Mr. Maurice, in this respect, compares and contrasts him very
happily with Plutarch. “Like Plutarch, the Greek and Roman
characters were in Marcus Aurelius remarkably blended; but, unlike
Plutarch, the foundation of his mind was Roman. He was a student
that he might more effectually carry on the business of an
emperor.”—_Philosophy of the First Six Centuries_, p. 32.

421 vi. 47.

422 Capitolinus, Aurelius Victor.

423 M. Suckau, in his admirable _Étude sur Marc-Aurèle_, and M. Renan,
in a very acute and learned _Examen de quelques faits relatifs à
l’impératrice Faustine_ (read before the Institut, August 14, 1867),
have shown the extreme uncertainty of the stories about the
debaucheries of Faustina, which the biographers of Marcus Aurelius
have collected. It will be observed that the emperor himself has
left an emphatic testimony to her virtue, and to the happiness he
derived from her (i. 17); that the earliest extant biographer of
Marcus Aurelius was a generation later; and that the infamous
character of Commodus naturally predisposed men to imagine that he
was not the son of so perfect an emperor.

424 “Quid me fletis, et non magis de pestilentia et communi morte
cogitatis?” Capitolinus, _M. Aurelius_.

425 Ibid.

426 Many examples of this are given by Coulanges, _La Cité antique_, pp.
177-178.

427 All this is related by Suetonius, _August_.

428 Tacit. _Annal._ iv. 36.

429 See, e.g., the sentiments of the people about Julius Cæsar, Sueton.
_J. C._ lxxxviii.

430 Sueton. _Vesp._ xxiii.

431 “Qualis artifex pereo” were his dying words.

432 See Sueton. _Calig._ 1.

433 Sueton. _Calig._ xxii. A statue of Jupiter is said to have burst out
laughing just before the death of this emperor.

434 Seneca, _De Ira_, i. 46; Sueton. _Calig._ xxii.

435 Lampridius, _Heliogab._

436 Senec. _De Clemen._ i. 18.

437 Tacit. _Annal._ iii. 36.

438 Senec. _De Benefic._ iii. 26.

439 Tacit. _Annal._ i. 73. Tiberius refused to allow this case to be
proceeded with. See, too, Philost. _Apollonius of Tyana_, i. 15.

440 Suet. _Tiber._ lviii.

441 “Mulier quædam, quod semel exuerat ante statuam Domitiani, damnata
et interfecta est.”—Xiphilin, lxvii. 12.

442 “Eos demum, qui nihil præterquam de libertate cogitent, dignos esse,
qui Romani fiant.”—Livy, viii. 21.

443 Valerius Maximus, iv. 3, § 14.

444 See the picture of this scene in Tacitus, _Hist._ iii. 83.

445 Dion. Halicarnass.

446 “Divina Natura dedit agros; ars humana ædificavit urbes.”

447 See a collection of passages from these writers in Wallon, _Hist. de
l’Esclavage_, tome ii. pp. 378-379. Pliny, in the first century,
noticed (_Hist. Nat._ xviii. 7) that the _latifundia_, or system of
large properties, was ruining both Italy and the provinces, and that
six landlords whom Nero killed were the possessors of half Roman
Africa.

448 Tacit. _Annal._ xii. 43. The same complaint had been made still
earlier by Tiberius, in a letter to the Senate. (_Annal._ iii. 54.)

449 Augustus, for a time, contemplated abolishing the distributions, but
soon gave up the idea. (Suet. _Aug._ xlii.) He noticed that it had
the effect of causing the fields to be neglected.

450 M. Wallon has carefully traced this history. (_Hist. de l’Esclav._
tome iii. pp. 294-297.)

451 Livy, iv. 59-60. Florus, i. 12.

452 Livy, xxiv. 49.

453 Sallust, _Bell. Jugurth._ 84-86.

454 Livy, xxxix. 6.

455 “Primus Cæsarum fidem militis etiam præmio pigneratus.”—Suet.
_Claud._ x.

456 See Tacitus, _Annal._ xiii. 35; _Hist._ ii. 69.

457 M. Sismondi thinks that the influence of Christianity in subduing
the spirit of revolt, if not in the army, at least in the people,
was very great. He says: “Il est remarquable qu’en cinq ans, sept
prétendans au trône, tous bien supérieurs à Honorius en courage, en
talens et en vertus, furent successivement envoyés captifs à Ravenne
ou punis de mort, que le peuple applaudit toujours à ces jugemens et
ne se sépara point de l’autorité légitime, tant la doctrine du droit
divin des rois que les évêques avoient commencé à prêcher sous
Théodose avoit fait de progrès, et tant le monde romain sembloit
determiné à périr avec un monarque imbécile plutôt que tenté de se
donner un sauveur.”—_Hist. de la Chute de l’Empire romain_, tome i.
p. 221.

458 See Gibbon, ch. v.; Merivale’s _Hist. of Rome_, ch. lxvii. It was
thought that troops thus selected would be less likely to revolt.
Constantine abolished the Prætorians.

459 The gladiatorial shows are treated incidentally by most Roman
historians, but the three works from which I have derived most
assistance in this part of my subject are the _Saturnalia_ of Justus
Lipsius, Magnin, _Origines du Théâtre_ (an extremely learned and
interesting book, which was unhappily never completed), and
Friedlænder’s _Roman Manners from Augustus to the Antonines_ (the
second volume of the French translation). M. Wallon has also
compressed into a few pages (_Hist. de l’Esclavage_, tome ii. pp.
129-139) much information on the subject.

460 Hence the old name of _bustuarii_ (from _bustum_, a funeral pile)
given to gladiators (Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_, p. 514).
According to Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ xxx. 3), “regular human sacrifices
were only abolished in Rome by a decree of the senate, B.C. 97,” and
there are some instances of them at a still later period. Much
information about them is collected by Sir C. Lewis, _Credibility of
Roman History_, vol. ii. p. 430; Merivale, _Conversion of the Roman
Empire_, pp. 230-233; Legendre, _Traité de l’Opinion_, vol. i. pp.
229-231. Porphyry, in his _De Abstinentia Carnis_, devoted
considerable research to this matter. Games were habitually
celebrated by wealthy private individuals, during the early part of
the empire, at the funerals of their relatives, but their mortuary
character gradually ceased, and after Marcus Aurelius they had
become mere public spectacles, and were rarely celebrated at Rome by
private men. (See Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclav._ tome ii. pp.
135-136.) The games had then really passed into their purely secular
stage, though they were still nominally dedicated to Mars and Diana,
and though an altar of Jupiter Latiaris stood in the centre of the
arena. (Nieupoort, p. 365.)

461 Cicero, _Tusc._ lib. ii.

462 Capitolinus, _Maximus et Balbinus_. Capitolinus says this is the
most probable origin of the custom, though others regarded it as a
sacrifice to appease Nemesis by an offering of blood.

463 Much curious information on this subject may be found in
Friedlænder, _Mœurs romaines_, liv. vi. ch. i. Very few Roman
emperors ventured to disregard or to repress these outcries, and
they led to the fall of several of the most powerful ministers of
the empire. On the whole these games represent the strangest and
most ghastly form political liberty has ever assumed. On the other
hand, the people readily bartered all genuine freedom for abundant
games.

464 Valer. Maximus, ii. 4, § 7.

465 On the gladiators at banquets, see J. Lipsius, _Saturnalia_, lib. i.
c. vi., Magnin; _Origines du Théâtre_, pp. 380-385. This was
originally an Etruscan custom, and it was also very common at Capua.
As Silius Italicus says:—

“Exhilarare viris convivia cæde Mos olim, et miscere epulis
spectacula dira.”

Verus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius, was especially addicted to
this kind of entertainment. (Capitolinus, _Verus_.) See, too,
Athenæus iv. 40, 41.

466 Senec. _De Brevit. Vit._ c. xiii.

467 Sueton. _J. Cæsar_, xxvi. Pliny (_Ep._ vi. 34) commends a friend for
having given a show in memory of his departed wife.

468 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxxiii. 16.

469 Sueton. _Cæsar_, x.; Dion Cassius, xliii. 24.

470 Sueton. _Aug._ xxix. The history of the amphitheatres is given very
minutely by Friedlænder, who, like nearly all other antiquaries,
believes this to have been the first of stone. Pliny mentions the
existence, at an earlier period, of two connected wooden theatres,
which swung round on hinges and formed an amphitheatre. (_Hist.
Nat._ xxxvi. 24.)

471 Dion Cassius, liv. 2. It appears, however, from an inscription, that
10,000 gladiators fought in the reign and by the command of
Augustus. Wallon_, Hist. de l’Esclavage_, tome ii. p. 133.

472 Sueton. _Tiber._ xxxiv. Nero made another slight restriction (Tacit.
_Annal._ xiii. 31), which appears to have been little observed.

473 Martial notices (_Ep._ iii. 59) and ridicules a spectacle given by a
shoemaker at Bologna, and by a fuller at Modena.

474 Epictetus, _Enchir._ xxxiii. § 2.

475 Arrian, iii. 15.

476 See these points minutely proved in Friedlænder.

477 Suet. _Aug._ xliv. This was noticed before by Cicero. The Christian
poet Prudentius dwelt on this aspect of the games in some forcible
lines:—

“Virgo modesta jubet converso pollice rumpi
Ne lateat pars ulla animæ vitalibus imis
Altius impresso dum palpitat ense secutor.”

478 Sueton. _Tiberius_, xl. Tacitus, who gives a graphic description of
the disaster (_Annal._ iv. 62-63), says 50,000 persons were killed
or wounded.

479 Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 49.

480 Joseph. _Bell. Jud._ vi. 9.

481 See the very curious picture which Livy has given (xli. 20) of the
growth of the fascination.

482 Joseph. _Antiq. Jud._ xix. 7.

483 Lucian, _Demonax_.

484 Philost. _Apoll._ iv. 22.

485 Friedlænder, tome ii. pp. 95-96. There are, however, several extant
Greek inscriptions relating to gladiators, and proving the existence
of the shows in Greece. Pompeii, which was a Greek colony, had a
vast amphitheatre, which we may still admire; and, under Nero, games
were prohibited at Pompeii for ten years, in consequence of a riot
that broke out during a gladiatorial show. (Tacit. _Annal._ xiv.
17.) After the defeat of Perseus, Paulus Emilius celebrated a show
in Macedonia. (Livy, xli. 20.)

486 These are fully discussed by Magnin and Friedlænder. There is a very
beautiful description of a ballet, representing the “Judgment of
Paris,” in Apuleius, _Metamorph._ x.

487 Pacuvius and Accius were the founders of Roman tragedy. The
abridger, Velleius Paterculus, who is the only Roman historian who
pays any attention to literary history, boasts that the latter might
rank honourably with the best Greek tragedians. He adds, “ut in
illis [the Greeks] limæ, in hoc pœne plus videatur fuisse
sanguinis.”—_Hist. Rom._ ii. 9.

488 Thus, e.g., Hobbes: “Alienæ calamitatis contemptus nominatur
crudelitas, proceditque a propriæ securitatis opinione. Nam ut
aliquis sibi placeat in malis alienis sine alio fine, videtur mihi
impossibile.”—_Leviathan_, pars i. c. vi.

489 Sueton. _Claudius_, xxxiv.

490 “Et verso pollice vulgi
Quemlibet occidunt populariter.”—Juvenal, _Sat._ iii. 36-37.

491 Besides the many incidental notices scattered through the Roman
historians, and through the writings of Seneca, Plutarch, Juvenal,
and Pliny, we have a curious little book, _De Spectaculis_, by
Martial—a book which is not more horrible from the atrocities it
recounts than from the perfect absence of all feeling of repulsion
or compassion it everywhere displays.

492 These are but a few of the many examples given by Magnin, who has
collected a vast array of authorities on the subject. (_Origines du
Théâtre_, pp. 445-453.) M. Mongez has devoted an interesting memoir
to “Les animaux promenés ou tués dans le cirque.” (_Mém. de l’Acad.
des Inscrip. et Belles-lettres_, tome x.) See, too, Friedlænder.
Pliny rarely gives an account of any wild animal without
accompanying it by statistics about its appearances in the arena.
The first instance of a wild beast hunt in the amphitheatre is said
to be that recorded by Livy (xxxix. 22), which took place about 80
B.C.

493 Capitolinus, _Gordiani_.

494 Vopiscus, _Aurelian_.

495 Xiphilin, lxviii. 15.

496 Tacit. _Annal._ xv. 44.

497 Xiphilin, lxvii. 8; Statius, _Sylv._ i. 6.

498 During the Republic, a rich man ordered in his will that some women
he had purchased for the purpose should fight in the funeral games
to his memory, but the people annulled the clause. (Athenæeus, iv.
39.) Under Nero and Domitian, female gladiators seem to have been
not uncommon. See Statius, _Sylv._ i. 6; Sueton. _Domitian_, iv.;
Xiphilin, lxvii. 8. Juvenal describes the enthusiasm with which
Roman ladies practised with the gladiatorial weapons (_Sat._ vi.
248, &c.), and Martial (_De Spectac._ vi.) mentions the combats of
women with wild beasts. One, he says, killed a lion. A combat of
female gladiators, under Severus, created some tumult, and it was
decreed that they should no longer be permitted. (Xiphilin, lxxv.
16.) See Magnin, pp. 434-435.

499 Martial, _De Spectac._ vii.

500 Ibid. _Ep._ viii. 30.

501 Tertullian, _Ad Nation._ i. 10. One of the most ghastly features of
the games was the comic aspect they sometimes assumed. This was the
case in the combats of dwarfs. There were also combats by
blind-folded men. Petronius (_Satyricon_, c. xlv.) has given us a
horrible description of the maimed and feeble men who were sometimes
compelled to fight. People afflicted with epilepsy were accustomed
to drink the blood of the wounded gladiators, which they believed to
be a sovereign remedy. (Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxviii. 2; Tertul.
_Apol._ ix.)

502 “Nec unquam sine humano cruore cœnabat”—Lactan. _De Mort. Persec._
Much the same thing is told of the Christian emperor Justinian II.,
who lived at the end of the seventh century. (Sismondi, _Hist. de la
Chute de l’Empire Romain_, tome ii. p. 85.)

503 Winckelmann says the statue called “The Dying Gladiator” does not
represent a gladiator. At a later period, however, statues of
gladiators were not uncommon, and Pliny notices (_Hist. Nat._ xxxv.
33) paintings of them. A fine specimen of mosaic portraits of
gladiators is now in the Lateran Museum.

504 Plutarch’s _Life of Cæsar_.

505 Dion Cassius, li. 7.

506 Faustina, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, was especially accused of
this weakness. (Capitolinus, _Marcus Aurelius_.)

507 Seneca, _De Provident._ iv.

508 Arrian’s _Epictetus_, i. 29.

509 Seneca, _De Provident._ iii.

510 Aulus Gellius, xii. 5.

511 Cicero, _Tusc._ lib. ii.

512 Some Equites fought under Julius Cæsar, and a senator named Fulvius
Setinus wished to fight, but Cæsar prevented him. (Suet. _Cæsar_,
xxxix.; Dion Cassius, xliii. 23.) Nero, according to Suetonius,
compelled men of the highest rank to fight. Laws prohibiting
patricians from fighting were several times made and violated.
(Friedlænder, pp. 39-41.) Commodus is said to have been himself
passionately fond of fighting as a gladiator. Much, however, of what
Lampridius relates on this point is perfectly incredible. On the
other hand, the profession of the gladiator was constantly spoken of
as infamous; but this oscillation between extreme admiration and
contempt will surprise no one who has noticed the tone continually
adopted about prize-fighters in England, and about the members of
some other professions on the Continent. Juvenal dwells (_Sat._
viii. 197-210) with great indignation on an instance of a patrician
fighting.

513 “Quis mediocris gladiator ingemuit, quis vultum mutavit
unquam?”—Cic. _Tusc. Quæst._ lib. ii.

514 E.g. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ iii. There is a well-known passage of this
kind in Horace, _Ars Poet._ 412-415. The comparison of the good man
to an athlete or gladiator, which St. Paul employed, occurs also in
Seneca and Epictetus, from which some have inferred that they must
have known the writings of the Apostle. M. Denis, however, has shown
(_Idées morales dans l’Antiquité_, tome ii. p. 240) that the same
comparison had been used, before the rise of Christianity, by Plato,
Æschines, and Cicero.

_ 515 Confess._ vi. 8.

516 “[Servi] etsi per fortunam in omnia obnoxii, tamen quasi secundum
hominum genus sunt.”—Florus, _Hist._ iii. 20.

517 Macrinus, however, punished fugitive slaves by compelling them to
fight as gladiators. (Capitolinus, _Macrinus_.)

518 Tacit. _Annal._ xii. 56. According to Friedlænder, however, there
were two classes of criminals. One class were condemned only to
fight, and pardoned if they conquered; the others were condemned to
fight till death, and this was considered an aggravation of capital
punishment.

519 “Ad conciliandum plebis favorem effusa largitio, quum spectaculis
indulget, supplicia quondam hostium artem facit.”—Florus, iii. 12.

_ 520 Tusc. Quæst._ ii. 17.

521 See his magnificent letter on the subject. (_Ep._ vii.)

522 In his two treatises _De Esu Carnium_.

523 Pliny. _Ep._ iv. 22.

524 Xiphilin, lxxi. 29. Capitolinus, _M. Aurelius_. The emperor also
once carried off the gladiators to a war with his army, much to the
indignation of the people. (Capit.) He has himself noticed the
extreme weariness he felt at the public amusements he was obliged to
attend. (vii. 3.)

525 Sueton. _Titus_, viii.

526 “Visum est spectaculum inde non enerve nec fluxum, nec quod animos
virorum molliret et frangeret, sed quod ad pulchra vulnera
contemptumque mortis accenderet.”—Pliny, _Paneg._ xxxiii.

527 “Præterea tanto consensu rogabaris, ut negare non constans sed durum
videretur.”—Plin. _Epist._ vi. 34.

528 Symmach. _Epist._ ii. 46.

529 Sueton. _Domitian_, iii. It is very curious that the same emperor,
about the same time (the beginning of his reign), had such a horror
of bloodshed that he resolved to prohibit the sacrifice of oxen.
(Suet. _Dom._ ix.)

530 “Pendant qu’il restait au logis, il n’était incommode à personne; il
y passait la meilleure partie de son temps tranquillement dans sa
chambre.... Il se divertissait aussi quelquefois à fumer une pipe de
tabac; ou bien lorsqu’il voulait se relâcher l’esprit un peu plus
longtemps, il cherchait des araignées qu’il faisait battre ensemble,
ou des mouches qu’il jetait dans la toile d’araignée, et regardait
ensuite cette bataille avec tant de plaisir qu’il éclatait
quelquefois de rire.”—Colerus, _Vie de Spinoza_.

531 This is noticed by George Duval in a curious passage of his
_Souvenirs de la Terreur_, quoted by Lord Lytton in a note to his
_Zanoni_.

_ 532 Essay on Goodness._

533 This contrast has been noticed by Archbishop Whately in a lecture on
Egypt. See, too, Legendre, _Traité de l’Opinion_, tome ii. p. 374.

534 Tacit. _Annal._ xiv. 45.

535 Senec. _De Clemen._ i. 14.

536 Val. Max. ii. 9. This writer speaks of “the eyes of a mistress
delighting in human blood” with as much horror as if the
gladiatorial games were unknown. Livy gives a rather different
version of this story.

537 Tacit. _Annal._ i. 76.

538 Sueton. _Calig._ xi.

539 Spartian. _Caracalla._ Tertullian mentions that his nurse was a
Christian.

540 Capitolinus, _Marcus Aurelius_. Capitolinus, who wrote under
Diocletian, says that in his time the custom of spreading a net
under the rope-dancer still continued. I do not know when it ceased
at Rome, but St. Chrysostom mentions that in his time it had been
abolished in the East.—Jortin’s _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_,
ii. 71 (ed. 1846).

541 Tacit. _Ann._ iii. 55.

542 Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome ii. pp. 179-200.

543 πολιτεύεσθαι.—Diog. Laërt. _Zeno_.

544 Thus Tigellinus spoke of “Stoicorum arrogantia sectaque quæ turbidos
et negotiorum appetentes faciat.”—Tacit. _Ann._ xiv. 57. The
accusation does not appear to have been quite untrue, for Vespasian,
who was a very moderate emperor, thought it necessary to banish
nearly all the philosophers from Rome on account of their
factiousness. Sometimes the Stoics showed their independence by a
rather gratuitous insolence. Dion Cassius relates that, when Nero
was thinking of writing a poem in 400 books, he asked the advice of
the Stoic Cornutus, who said, that no one would read so long a work.
“But,” answered Nero, “your favourite Chrysippus wrote still more
numerous books.” “True,” rejoined Cornutus, “but then they were of
use to humanity.” On the other hand, Seneca is justly accused of
condescending too much to the vices of Nero in his efforts to
mitigate their effects.

545 The influence of Stoicism on Roman law has been often examined. See,
especially, Degerando, _Hist. de la Philosophie_ (2nd ed.), tome
iii. pp. 202-204; Laferrière, _De l’Influence du Stoïcisme sur les
Jurisconsultes romains_; Denis, _Théories et Idées morales dans
l’Antiquité_, tome ii. pp. 187-217; Troplong, _Influence du
Christianisme sur le Droit civil des Romains_; Merivale, _Conversion
of the Roman Empire_, lec. iv.; and the great work of Gravina, _De
Ortu et Progressu Juris civilis_.

546 Cic. _De Legib._ ii. 4, 23.

547 There were two rival schools, that of Labeo and that of Capito. The
first was remarkable for its strict adherence to the letter of the
law—the second for the latitude of interpretation it admitted.

_ 548 Dig._ lib. i. tit. 17-32.

549 Ibid. i. tit. 1-3.

550 Ibid. i. tit. 1-4.

_ 551 Dig._ lib. i. tit. 4-5.

552 Laferrière, p. 32. Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclavage dans l’Antiquité_,
tome iii. pp. 71-80. M. Wallon gives many curious instances of legal
decisions on this point.

553 To prove that this is the correct conception of law was the main
object of Cicero’s treatise _De Legibus_. Ulpian defined
jurisprudence as “divinarum atque humanarum rerum notitia, justi
atque injusti scientia.”—_Dig._ lib. i. tit. 1-10. So Paul “Id quod
semper æquum ad bonum est jus dicitur ut est jus naturale.”—_Dig._
lib. i. tit. 1-11. And Gaius, “Quod vero naturalis ratio inter omnes
homines constituit ... vocatur jus gentium.”—_Dig._ lib. i. tit.
1-9. The Stoics had defined true wisdom as “rerum divinarum atque
humanarum scientia.”—Cic. _De Offic._ i. 43.

554 Cicero compares the phraseology of the Stoics with that of the
Peripatetics, maintaining that the precision of the former is well
adapted to legal discussions, and the redundancy of the latter to
oratory. “Omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id
arte faciant, sintque architecti pene verborum; iidem traducti a
disputando ad dicendum, inopes reperiantur: unum excipio Catonem....
Peripateticorum institutis commodius fingeretur oratio ... nam ut
Stoicorum astrictior est oratio, aliquantoque contractior quam aures
populi requirunt: sic illorum liberior et latior quam patitur
consuetudo judiciorum et fori.”—_De Claris Oratoribus._ A very
judicious historian of philosophy observes: “En général à Rome le
petit nombre d’hommes livrés à la méditation et à l’enthousiasme
préférèrent Pythagore et Platon; les hommes du monde et ceux qui
cultivaient les sciences naturelles s’attachèrent à Épicure; les
orateurs et les hommes d’État à la nouvelle Académie; les
juris-consultes au Portique.”—Degerando, _Hist. de la Philos._ tome
iii. p. 196.

555 See a very remarkable passage in Aulus Gellius, _Noct._ ii. 15.

556 “Fere enim nulli alii sunt homines qui talem in filios suos habeant
potestatem qualem nos habemus.”—Gaius.

557 A full statement of these laws is given by Dion. Halicarn. ii. 4. It
was provided that if a father sold his son and if the son was
afterwards enfranchised by the purchaser, he became again the slave
of his father, who might sell him a second, and, if manumission
again ensued, a third time. It was only on the third sale that he
passed for ever out of the parental control. A more merciful law,
attributed to Numa, provided that when the son married (if that
marriage was with the consent of the father), the father lost the
power of selling him. In no other way, however, was his authority
even then abridged.

558 Velleius Paterculus, ii. 67. A great increase of parricide was
noticed during the Empire (Senec. _De Clem._ i. 23). At first, it is
said, there was no law against parricide, for the crime was believed
to be too atrocious to be possible.

559 Numerous instances of these executions are collected by Livy, Val.
Maximus, &c.; their history is fully given by Cornelius van
Bynkershoek, “De Jure occidendi, vendendi, et exponendi liberos apud
veteres Romanos,” in his works (Cologne, 1761).

560 This proceeding of Hadrian, which is related by the lawyer Marcian,
is doubly remarkable, because the father had surprised his son in
adultery with his stepmother. Now a Roman had originally not only
absolute authority over the life of his son, but also the right of
killing any one whom he found committing adultery with his wife. Yet
Marcian praises the severity of Hadrian, “Nam patria potestas in
pietate debet, non atrocitate, consistere.”—_Digest._ lib. xlviii.
tit. 9, § 5.

561 Valer. Max. vii. 7.

562 See, on all this subject, Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch. xliv.;
Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit_, ch. ix.; Denis,
_Hist. des Idées morales_, tome ii. pp. 107-120; Laferrière,
_Influence du Stoïcisme sur les Jurisconsultes_, pp. 37-44.

563 Ælian, _Hist. Var._ vi. 7.

564 Livy, ii. 36; Cicero, _De Divin._ ii. 26.

565 Cicero, _De Legibus_, ii. 8-12. Cato, however, maintained that
slaves might on those days be employed on work which did not require
oxen.—Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclavage_, tome ii. p. 215.

566 See the _Saturnalia_ of Macrobius.

567 See his _Life_ by Plutarch, and his book on agriculture.

568 The number of the Roman slaves has been a matter of much
controversy. M. Dureau de la Malle (_Econ. politique des Romains_)
has restricted it more than any other writer. Gibbon (_Decline and
Fall_, chap. ii.) has collected many statistics on the subject, but
the fullest examination is in M. Wallon’s admirable _Hist. de
l’Esclavage_. On the contrast between the character of the slaves of
the Republic and those of the Empire, see _Tac. Ann._ xiv. 44.

569 Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 32; xiv. 42-45. Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclav._
ii. 293. I have already noticed the indignant rising of the people
caused by the proposal to execute the 400 slaves of the murdered
Pedanius. Their interposition was, however (as Tacitus informs us),
unavailing, and the slaves, guarded against rescue by a strong band
of soldiers, were executed. It was proposed to banish the freedmen
who were in the house, but Nero interposed and prevented it. Pliny
notices (_Ep._ viii. 14) the banishment of the freedmen of a
murdered man.

570 See all this fully illustrated in Wallon. The plays of Plautus and
the Roman writers on agriculture contain numerous allusions to the
condition of slaves.

571 Wallon, tome ii. pp. 209-210, 357. There were no laws till the time
of the Christian emperors against separating the families of slaves,
but it was a maxim of the jurisconsults that in forced sales they
should not be separated. (Wallon, tome iii. pp. 55-56.)

572 Ibid. tome ii. pp. 211-213.

573 Plin. _Epist._ viii. 16. It was customary to allow the public or
State slaves to dispose of half their goods by will. (Wallon, tome
iii. p. 59.)

574 Wallon, tome ii. p. 419. This appears from an allusion of Cicero,
_Philip._ viii. 11.

575 Senec. _De Clem._ i. 18.

576 Ibid. _Ep._ xlvii.

577 Pliny, _Ep._ viii. 16.

578 Spartianus, _Hadrianus_.

579 Compare Wallon, tome ii. p. 186; tome iii. pp. 65-66. Slaves were
only to be called as witnesses in cases of incest, adultery, murder,
and high treason, and where it was impossible to establish the crime
without their evidence. Hadrian considered that the reality of the
crime must have already acquired a strong probability, and the
jurisconsult Paul laid down that at least two free witnesses should
be heard before slaves were submitted to torture, and that the offer
of an accused person to have his slaves tortured that they might
attest his innocence should not be accepted.

580 Numerous and very noble instances of slave fidelity are given by
Seneca, _De Benefic._ iii. 19-27; Val. Max. vi. 8; and in Appian’s
_History of the Civil Wars_. See, too, Tacit. _Hist._ i. 3.

581 Aristotle had, it is true, declared slavery to be part of the law of
nature—an opinion which, he said, was rejected by some of his
contemporaries; but he advocated humanity to slaves quite as
emphatically as the other philosophers (_Economics_, i. 5). Epicurus
was conspicuous even among Greek philosophers for his kindness to
slaves, and he associated some of his own with his philosophical
labours. (Diog. Laërt. _Epicurus_.)

_ 582 De Benef._ iii. 18-28; _De Vita Beata_, xxiv.; _De Clem._ i. 18,
and especially _Ep._ xlvii. Epictetus, as might be expected from his
history, frequently recurs to the duty. Plutarch writes very
beautifully upon it in his treatise _De Cohibenda Ira_.

583 Diog. Laërt. _Zeno_.

584 Bodin thinks it was promulgated by Nero, and he has been followed by
Troplong and Mr. Merivale. Champagny (_Les Antonins_, tome ii. p.
115) thinks that no law after Tiberius was called _lex_.

585 Sueton. _Claud._ xxv.; Dion Cass. lx. 29.

586 See Dumas, _Secours publics chez les Anciens_ (Paris, 1813), pp.
125-130.

587 Senec. _De Clem._ i. 18.

588 Senec. _De Benef._ iii. 22.